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High school cross-country team visits local shelter to run with rescue dogs

Cross-country runners at a California high school visited a local animal shelter recently and took the rescue dogs out for a morning run.

Rescue Dogs

It’s a close call between who had a better day on Aug. 4: the rescue dogs or the high school cross-country team that took the canines for a run. Team members at St. Joseph’s High School in Orcutt, Calif. visited the local Santa Barbara County Animal Shelter and took rescue dogs out for a morning run with adorable results.

“This morning me and the St. Joseph High School cross-country team conducted our workout at the county animal shelter in Santa Maria, Calif,” Luis Escobar, the team coach, wrote online. “Each team member was assigned a dog and we went out for a couple miles around the shelter. I am not sure who was more excited and having the most fun, the dogs or the kids. Either way, it was a great time and I am sure we will do it again sometime soon.”

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Employees at the shelter briefed the high school students on tips for running with canines before the group headed out to run the 3.2K loop. Each student was paired with a dog for the morning run. The group proceeded to head out to a local park to run on a hard-packed, dirt trail alongside a road.

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One of the rescue dogs, Fred, needed to be carried for the final portion of the run because of fatigue. The student, named Josh and responsible for Fred, cradled the canine in his arms which was captured at the end of the video posted to Facebook. The video has been seen more than 64,000 times since it’s Aug. 4 posting.

The dogs seemed excited even before they went out for a morning run as can be seen in the below video.

“The dogs loved it and the kids seemed to have a great time too,” the animal shelter posted to its Facebook page. “All participating dogs are now resting comfortably in their beds.”

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Because of the run’s popularity among the students and the dogs, a routine dog run may be in the works. The cross-country team is preparing for race season this fall. The widely-shared video has also attracted interest from potential adopters of the rescue dogs at the local California animal shelter.

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